“Opiant Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:OPNT), the company that invented the Narcan spray, is developing what it says is longer-lasting treatment nasal treatment for abusers of the opioid Fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid similar to morphine but 50 to 100 times more potent. It is typically used to treat severe pain. The new nasal spray will be used to save the lives of opioid abusers, according to Dr. Roger Crystal, Opiant Pharmaceuticals’ CEO.

“The idea is very similar to how Narcan works,” he told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” “It gets them breathing again.”

“The online sale from Chinese labs of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, the top driver behind the unprecedented overdose deaths in the United States deemed a top national security threat, reached nearly $800 million over two years, reveals a newly unveiled Senate investigation.

During a hearing Thursday focused on the report authored by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Subcommittee on Investigations, the panel’s Chairman Rob Portman (R-OH) revealed in his prepared remarks:

It is not surprising that people are ordering fentanyl online to sell; the profit margins are staggering. Based on DEA estimates, the street value of the online transactions from just the six websites the Subcommittee investigated translates to around $766 million in fentanyl pills to sell on the streets of our communities.

The U.S. government has determined that China is “the primary source of fentanyl in the United States.”

“While Donald Trump criticizes and argues with the United Nations, Mexico, and China over embassies, walls and trade deals, his administration is relying upon them as he attempts to combat the opioid epidemic.

The president declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency last year, with most recent government estimates suggesting the more than 64,000 fatal overdoses in 2016 outnumber the total number of American deaths in the Vietnam war.

Richard Baum, acting director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the Guardian that the US had requested the UN help declare fentanyl – an opioid at the heart of the crisis in the US – illegal in both the US and China.”

“Customs agents will have $9 million for additional equipment to detect fentanyl and other opioids from entering the country under a bill President Trump signed Wednesday.

The Interdict Act — an acronym for International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology — allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to buy chemical screening devices that can detect the deadly drugs as they enter the United States.

China is the largest source of fentanyl smuggling, but the drug is often shipped first to Mexico or Canada where it then crosses the border into the United States. It’s often shipped by mail or other couriers — and even ordered online — but it can be difficult to detect in small amounts.”

“In 2002, Chechen terrorists took 800 people hostage in Moscow Theater, and Russian special forces devised a peculiar way to subdue them. The tactical team gassed the theater with two types of fentanyl, an opioid known for its extreme strength. One version was 2,000 to 5,000 times as potent as heroin.

The gas killed 125 of the 800 hostages during the siege.

Fast forward 15 years, and fentanyl and its derivatives have become the primary driver of overdose deaths in the U.S. These fentanyls caused synthetic opioids to account for one-third of all drug-related deaths in 2016, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That’s a 700 percent increase from five years ago for manufactured opioids.

This surge in illicit fentanyl presents a new challenge for families and medical professionals trying to keep loved ones from the harm of opioid misuse. And it’s unclear if the most validated defense for opioid misuse — medication-assisted therapies like naloxone, methadone and buprenorphine — can stem the surge of overdoses caused by fentanyl.”

“The deadly synthetic fentanyl and a shortage of treatment facilities will fuel the opioid epidemic over the next five years — and fatalities will climb before finally tapering off, according to mathematical models developed by Northeastern researchers.

“Things are going to get worse before they get better,” said James Benneyan, professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. “No single intervention is going to make the difference.”

“Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new drug screening technique that could lead to the rapid and accurate identification of fentanyl, as well as a vast number of other drugs of abuse, which up until now have been difficult to detect by traditional urine tests.

The method, outlined in the current edition of the journal Analytical Chemistry, addresses a serious public health emergency related to opioid addiction and unintentional overdose deaths: the lack of a reliable and inexpensive test that allows for comprehensive surveillance of synthetic drugs flooding the illegal market.

The new method would eliminate a two-stage process currently in use for drug monitoring by allowing technicians to run many tests at once in a high throughput manner — dramatically cutting processing time while improving screening accuracy with quality assurance. Importantly, this mass spectrometric method can also screen for a wider range of drugs of abuse, as well as identify designer drugs that elude conventional tests.”

Of all the painkillers being used and abused, a single one — fentanyl — has been called by public health officials and even members of Congress the “third wave” of the opioid epidemic.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that of the more than 64,000 US overdose deathslast year from any drug, more than 20,000 were attributed to synthetic opioids, many of them related to fentanyl and its variations. A recent CDC analysis of overdose deaths in 10 states found that fentanyl was involved in 56% of opioid overdose deaths from July 2016 through December 2016.

Most of the fentanyl that people are buying on the street isn’t diverted from pharmacies or hospitals but rather illegally made in clandestine labs, much of it chemical variationsof legal fentanyl.

For example, thechemicaldifference between fentanyl and carfentanil is just a few molecules. But the difference in potency is significant: Fentanyl is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine, but carfentanil is up to 10,000 times more powerful than morphine. Carfentanil is used as a tranquilizer for large animals like elephants and has been blamed in fatal drug overdose outbreaks in Ohio and West Virginia.”

“You’ve probably heard or seen the phrase “Opioid Use Disorder.” It’s a broad term currently being used to describe not only opioid addiction, but patterns of behavior that might be a sign of addiction or could lead to it.

If that sounds like they’re putting the cart before the horse, it’s because they are.

In order to understand Opioid Use Disorder, one must understand the government’s stance on opioids. The National Institute on Drug Abuse – which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – lays it out in a recently revised statement on the opioid crisis:

“Every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of and addiction to opioids–including prescription pain relievers, heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl–is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.”

Notice how they lump prescription pain relievers in with heroin and illicit fentanyl? The more I research, the more I find this common thread of illogical thinking. The government consistently lumps pain medication in with illicit drugs.